Headlines

Surrounded on all sides by foes, Xi Jinping faces mounting obstacles to his goal of  ‘national rejuvenation.’

May 28.– As China reopens its economy after months of lockdowns, the country’s leadership has initiated a broad offensive to expand its influence at home and abroad. A new Hong Kong security law that attemps to stamp out dissent in the autonomous region sparked another round of anti-Mainland protests. Meanwhile, China has scaled up military exercises in the Yellow Sea, which will extend into the South China Sea this summer.

Now a standoff between forces on the Sino–Indian border has opened a new front in Beijing’s offensive. This latest development in a decades-old dispute between the world’s two most populous countries underscores the myriad obstacles that Chinese president Xi Jinping faces in his goal of “national rejuvenation.”

SocialBoost is one of the most prominent Ukrainian NGOs (photo) using tech to strengthen democracy.

May 15.– Within the last few months, Europe has witnessed the making of a new political star: Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky. His rise to power has all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster: actor playing a president in a successful TV show becomes president himself after defeating 43 candidates in the most contested election in Ukraine’s history and winning by a landslide against incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the run-off vote.

This week, Ukraine is holding parliamentary elections, the culmination of Zelensky's whirlwind two months in office, which saw the new president dissolve Parliament, issue a public call for new peace talks with Russia and seek to build trust with the country’s Western allies through visits to Brussels, Berlin and Toronto.

By failing to face up to its difficulties, the European Union makes them only worse.

 May 14.– Seventy years ago this month Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister, proposed a European “coal and steel community”. With that humble agreement governing two commodities, six war-ravaged countries created a common market that evolved into the European Union.

The journey towards integration since then has been bumpy, but it has had a sense of direction. National leaders came and went, the Berlin Wall rose and fell, economic hurricanes struck and blew themselves out. Somehow, the eu muddled through. It deepened, building the world’s largest single market, letting its people move freely across borders and creating a common currency. It broadened, as 22 states joined the original six, including 11 that had suffered for decades under communism. It cemented peace and spread prosperity. Today, Europe is a beacon of liberal values and an exemplar of a gentler type of capitalism.

A relationship long burdened by rivalry and suspicion has fallen into outright hostility.

The new Cold War: The pandemic is driving America and China further apart.

May 9.– You might have hoped that a pandemic would bring the world together. Instead covid-19 is tearing it apart. As the disease has spread, relations between America and China have plunged into an abyss from which they will struggle to escape.

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, says he has “enormous evidence” that the virus behind covid-19 came from a laboratory in Wuhan — though America’s intelligence agencies as well as its closest intelligence partners say proof is still lacking. To punish China for letting the disease spread, the Trump administration has reportedly considered demanding reparations or cancelling some Treasury bonds held by China — though nervous American officials later dismissed this crackpot idea. China has branded Mr Pompeo “insane” and a “political virus” (see article). State-run media are calling for an international investigation into America’s “incredible failure” to deal with the outbreak.